1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cartridge, an identification information tag and an image forming device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an image forming device such as a color printer or copying machine, it has become common to use a color toner cartridge that fills toner of yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C) or black (K), respectively, therein for the convenience of supplying toner or to pack a photosensitive drum and peripheral components in a detachable central processing unit so as to serve the convenience of maintenance and repair.
In the image forming device using attached color toner cartridges, since attachment of the cartridge at a wrong position causes color mixture, each cartridge needs to be attached at only the respective predetermined position so as not to be attached at other positions.
Moreover, in the case of OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturing), cartridges including toner cartridge and central processing unit are generally manufactured for multiple destinations. In such cases, the cartridge for one destination is often prevented from being used for other destinations.
Further, to prevent troubles due to attachment and use of a non-genuine cartridge in the image forming device, the non-genuine cartridge often cannot be attached.
As a measure of meeting these demands, it has been conventionally carried out to provide a hard key such as various protrusion or recess portion on the surface of the cartridge so that only the cartridge having the hard key in a certain shape can be attached mechanically to the image forming device and the cartridge having the hard key in a different shape cannot be attached mechanically.
As a method of preventing the non-genuine cartridge from being mechanically attached to the image forming device, there has been proposed to form a protrusion or recess portion in the shape of logo mark on the surface abutting to a hopper portion of the toner cartridge and also form a corresponding protrusion or recess portion on the hopper portion at the position to which the protrusion or recess portion fits.
Since manufacturers of non-genuine products cannot use the logo mark, no protrusion or recess portion in the shape of logo mark is formed on the above-mentioned surface of the cartridge made by manufacturers of non-genuine products. Accordingly, when the toner cartridge made by manufacturers of non-genuine products is used as a spare part, the above-mentioned protrusion or recess portion needs to be formed on the above-mentioned surface, necessitating change in the shape of the above-mentioned surface. Thus, it is very difficult to use non-genuine products.
As another method of preventing use of the non-genuine cartridge, there has been proposed to provide a data carrier for holding predetermined data in a genuine change part, provide a data reading unit for reading the data in a main body of the device, determine whether or not the attached change part is a genuine one in advance, perform normal operation when it is a genuine one and stop normal operation or store the use state of non-genuine part in a memory when it is a non-genuine one.
However, when the hard key or the protrusion or recess portion in the shape of logo mark that varies with destinations is provided to the cartridge, in the case of many destinations, there is need to carry a large stock for every different hard key or logo mark. Further, provision of the hard key or logo mark that varies with destinations causes a lot of problems in terms of manufacturing management. Furthermore, it also generates a problem that the cartridge with the hard key or logo mark in a wrong shape may be shipped.